Metabase
Metabase is an open-source business intelligence tool focused on quick setup and non-technical self-serve — dashboards, a visual query builder, and native SQL when needed.
LicenseOpen source (copyleft)· AGPL-3.0
DeploymentSelf-hostedManaged
PricingFreeSubscription
Operational complexityLow
WorkloadInteractive
LanguageClojure, TypeScript
Use it when
- Non-technical users should self-serve on day one: the visual query builder needs no SQL, and setup is a single JAR or container.
- A small data team wants dashboards, alerts, and scheduled deliveries with the lowest operating effort in the open-source field.
- Guest embedding on the free tier matters: locked-parameter embeds ship in the open-source edition.
- You may outgrow self-hosting: Metabase Cloud is a straight upgrade path.
Think twice when
- Row- and column-level security matter on a budget: sandboxing is Pro and Enterprise, and it does not apply to native SQL questions, which still return the whole table.
- The licence matters: AGPL-3.0, where Superset is Apache-2.0.
- Metrics should live in code: models and verified metrics are defined in the app, not in git.
How it runs
One JAR or container self-hosted, or Metabase Cloud (Starter at $100 a month for five users, Enterprise from $20,000 a year). Nineteen maintained drivers push queries down to the source with result caching; alerts and dashboard subscriptions deliver by email, Slack, or webhook.
Details
CompareHow Metabase answers the questions Business Intelligence turns on.
Business Intelligence
| How it works | |
| Authoring model | Visual query builder, or the native SQL editor |
| Semantic layer | Models and metrics defined in the app; no external modelling language |
| Query execution | Pushdown to the source, with result caching; results can also be materialized into the database |
| Chart library | A fixed built-in set: no plugin marketplace and no custom chart API |
| Definitions in | Application database; YAML serialization export on Pro and Enterprise only |
| Alerts and delivery | Alerts fire when a question returns rows, crosses a goal line or fills a progress bar, on a schedule down to the minute, to email, Slack or an admin-configured webhook; dashboard subscriptions are the unconditional counterpart |
| Connections | |
| Connectors | Nineteen maintained drivers (Postgres, MySQL, MariaDB, SQL Server, Oracle, SQLite, Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Databricks, ClickHouse, Athena, Starburst, Presto, SparkSQL, Vertica, Druid and MongoDB) plus community drivers for anything else |
| Embedding | Guest embeds with locked parameters on every plan, including open source; SSO embeds that carry data permissions, and full-app embedding, are Pro and Enterprise, both reachable as web components or a React SDK |
| Access | |
| Access control | Collections hold content permissions and groups hold database permissions; row and column security by user attribute is Pro and Enterprise only, and it does not apply to SQL questions, which still return the whole table |
| Cost | |
| Billing unit | Free and unlimited if you self-host the open-source edition; Cloud is a base fee plus per-user, Starter at $100 a month for five users and $6 each after, Pro at $575 for ten and $12 each after, Enterprise from $20,000 a year |
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